In recent years, wireless local area networks (LANs) typified by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 have spread. In addition, with the wireless LANs, products corresponding to the wireless LANs (hereinafter also referred to as wireless communication devices) have also increased. When wireless communication devices increase, there is a high possibility of communication efficiency deteriorating. Therefore, it is desirable to improve the communication efficiency.
As methods of improving communication efficiency, for example, there are technologies for block acknowledgement (ACK) (hereinafter also referred to as block ACK (BA)). In the technologies, when ACK information regarding a plurality of pieces of received data is transmitted using one BA frame, communication resources necessary for communication of the ACK information are reduced. As a result, communication efficiency is improved.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a communication method of switching a block ACK scheme to a normal ACK scheme by opening resources ensured for the block ACK scheme in a case in which a data frame of the block ACK scheme is not received within a predetermined period.